The present variety relates to a new and distinct variety of Zamioculcas commonly known as Aroid Palm or ZZ Plant. The new variety is known botanically as Zamioculcas zamiifolia and will be referred to hereinafter by the name ‘Dowon’.
Zamioculcas is a succulent plant with dark green glossy compound leaves which stores water in its thick petioles. Zamioculcas is native to tropical and sub-tropical east and southeast Africa and only one species, zamiifolia, is known. Zamioculcas is grown and used as a tropical or indoor foliage plant.
Zamioculcas plants grow from an underground tuber which also comprises the stem. All of the growth above ground consists of erect or semi-erect large pinnately compound leaves borne on stiff petioles. Each leaflet within the compound leaf is attached to a central rachis. The attachment is typically sessile or minutely petiolulate.
The new Zamioculcas variety named ‘Dowon’ was discovered in 2006 as a naturally occurring branch mutation by the inventor at the inventor's nursery in Segok-dong, Seoul, South Korea. The inventor observed that a single unnamed plant of typically green-foliaged Zamioculcas had produced on one of its compound leaves a set of leaflets with uncharacteristically very dark green coloration, tending to darken further as the leaflets expanded. When fully expanded, the leaflets, rachis and petiole became entirely black or near-black. Zamioculcas may be propagated from individual leaflet cuttings. The inventor continued to observe the original plant for many months before carrying out the first asexual propagation in 2006 using black leaflets. The inventor was interested to know if the black leaflets would root and would produce new plants with the same characteristic of leaf blackening. The inventor observed that new foliage growth from the rooted black leaflets first emerged typically green in color but became black or nearly black as the compound leaf expanded and matured.
The inventor has repeated this process of reproduction from black leaves and has determined that the development of black plants as herein described is consistent. The inventor has determined that ‘Dowon’ reproduces true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction via leaflet cuttings.